Method of forming alpha ring-shaped article



April. 3, 1934. c. F. COOPER 1,953,795

METHOD OF FORMING A RING SHAPED ARTICLE Filed April 15, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 'II III l 20 /a /0 III I Fly. 1

Fig. 2 I

// 'Im' "Mi 2o w Fig. 5

ATTORN EY$ c. F. COOPER v 1,953,795

METHOD OF FORMING A RING SHAPED ARTICLE Filed April 15,, 1935' April 3, 1934.

I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 /6 4 /6 FL 9I5 /9 v 20 Fig 7 ATTORNELS Patented Apr. 3, 1934 UNITED stares PATENT osrice METHOD OF FORIVIING A RING-SHAPED ARTICLE Charles F. Cooper, Torrington, Conn, assignor to The American Brass Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application April 15, 1933, Serial No. 666,314

7 Claims. (Cl. 29156) This invention relates to new and useful imticles of irregular wall shape and having irregu provements in method of forming ring-shaped lar inner or outer surfaces from suitable sections articles. 7 or lengths of tubing with minimum loss of Waste An object of the invention is to provide an im-- of material, and also with a reduction of machinproved method whereby ring-shaped articles, ing operations. Referring to the drawings, and 60 particularly those of irregular wall thickness, at first particularly to Fig. 1, the first step in may be made without loss or waste of material. carrying out the method of the invention is the Other objects and advantages will become approviding of a ring 10 of rectangular cross secparent from a consideration of the following detion and of the metal desired. This ring may be 10 tailed description taken in connection with the cut from a tube to the desired length and con- 65 accompanying drawings wherein satisfactory tains all the material necessary for the finished means for carrying out or practising the improduct. proved method are shown. However, it will be Ring 10 is placed on a punch 11 having the understood that the invention is not limited to edge portion of its front end wall beveled or inthe details disclosed but includes all such variaclined as at 12. A reduced portion 13 of aplunger 70 tions and modifications as fall within the spirit or ram 14 enters partially into or otherwise conof the invention and the scope of the appended meets with the punch 11, and this ram may be claims. operated in any desired manner as by hydraulic In the drawings: or other means, not shown. The ram is adapted Fig. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a die, a to force the ring 10 against a die 15 mounted in 75 punch, and a ram for the punch, a ring of metal any suitable press bed or other support 16. to be formed, being mounted on the punch; Mounted on the portion 13 is a filler sleeve 17 Fig. 2 is a similar view illustrating a step in said sleeve extending between the punch head 11 the method, the ram and punch having been adand the ram and being removable from the ram vanced to bring the ring against the die; when the punch head has been removed. Disso 3 s a c io a View illust ating the next posed over this sleeve 1'? and the punch head and step of the method, the ram having been withextending between the inner end of ring 10 and drawn to permit removal Of Sleev the from; the ram is a second sleeve 18 which will serve to 4 is a Sectional View llust ati g a furt er transmit the full pressure of the ram against the step, the ram and punch having been advanced ring 10 and force the ring into the die 15 when 5 to Carry the ring through e die; the ram is advanced as in Fig. 2, or sleeves 1'? Fig. 5 is a sectional view showing the next and 18 may be one element or connected step of the methOd, the a hav g bee ad- The advancing of the ram to force the ring 10 vanced to Carry the pu thIOHgh a ripper into the die 15, as indicated in Fig. 2, may be conwhereby to strip the ring being formed from the sidered the first operation of the present method Punch and in effect turn a ring ns d Out; and such operation or step results in the outside 6 is View p y in t n d pa tly in diameter of the forward or front end portion of elevation and showing the ring being rolled to the ring being reduced without any material proper S ape; and change in the wall thickness of the ring whereby 40 7 is a View Similar o 5 a i1lllstrating the latter will assume the shape shown in Fig. 2. the rolling of the ring between rolls of excellent 11; 111 be understood that owing to the presence finish and more accurate shape to finish the ringof the sleeve 18 the ring 10 will be held against In the p it has been 0011111101! practice in elongation and force applied to force the ring making metal bands Ting Shaped articles of into the die, and its front end portion 10a will 45 irre ular wall thi k ss t st mak th and or be forced inwardly against the inclined surface 12 ring of true rectangular cross section and then of t punch turn Off the portion or Portions required to give Next, the ram is withdrawn as is suggested in it the desired finished shape and the difierent or Fig 3 leaving th ring 10 i the di 15 and the irregular wall thicknesses required. This pracpunch head 11 may be left in the ring. The 50 time has resuIted in a Waste of material p cia ly sleeve 13 is removed and if desired the sleeve 17 where the ring shaped article was of large size may also be removed and the ram is then advanced or they were used in large numbers, and furtherto push or force the ring 10 through the die 15 to more such machining operations are costly. cause it to assume the shape shown in Fig. 4.

To overcome these objections I have devised a If desired, the punch 11 might, of course, be with- 55 method of forming bands or other ring-like ardrawn with the ram, this being an immaterial variation since the reason for withdrawing the ram is to permit of removal of the sleeve 18. When this sleeve is removed and the ram advanced again the ring 10 may be forced through the die since the ring will then be free to elongate as shown in Fig. 4 and its outside diameter reduced somewhat by the drawing action of the die. The tapered front of punch 11 acting against the inwardly projection portion 10a forces the ring through the die.

In Fig. i it will be noted that the inwardly extending front end portion 10a of the ring 10 has not been elongated so that it is substantially of its original wall thickness. However, the other portion of the ring has been elongated somewhat and is of reduced wall thickness as compared to the inwardly bent end portion. The outer surface of the ring is now regular or of substantially uniform diameter while the inner surface of the ring is irregular and the various portions or the ring have substantially the wall thicknesses desired in the finished article.

Fig. 4 shows the ring 10 advanced so that it is abutting a stripper ring 19 which may be carried in a bed 20 provided either in the same machine or in a separate machine from the one carrying the die 15. As here shown the stripper ring 19 is in alignment with the die 15. However, that is not essential since as above suggested, these elements may be mounted in separate machines if such is desired.

The next step in the method involves the advancing of the ram and punch so as to carry the punch through the ring 10 and stripper 19 as shown in Fig. 5 whereby to strip the ring from the punch and also change the shape of the ring. It will be noted that as this operation is performed the ring 10 is in abutting relation with the stripper 19 and that the said ring has in effect been turned inside out. That is, where the ring was formerly straight or regular on its outer surface and irregular on its inner surface after the punch has been forced through the ring the latter is irregular on its outer surface and regular or straight on its inner surface as the inwardly projecting portion 10a has now been forced to the outside of the ring as indicated at 29.

Ram and punch may now be withdrawn and the ring 10 of Fig. 5 is transferred to a rolling machine diagrammatically shown in Fig. 6 and including a pair of rolls 21 and 22 mounted on the ends of spindles 23 and 24 forming part of any suitable or standard construction of rolling machine and driven by any suitable means, not shown. These spindles are preferably mounted in such manner that the center distances between the rolls 21 and 22 can be increased or decreased at will by means of the customary roll adjusting screws, not shown.

Roll 21 is shaped to conform with the shape desired for the outer surface of a finished ring and includes an integral collar or flange 25 and a removable collar 26, the latter being held in place as by a suitable lock nut 27. It will be noted that roll 21 includes a groove 28 to accommodate the thickened end portion 29 of the ring 10 of Fig. 5. Roll 22 is flat or plain to fit the desired inside surface of the ring 10 although such roll 22 might be corrugated, knurled, or otherwise patterned or formed if desired.

In preparation for the rolling operation just described the rings 10 of Fig. 5 are heated in any suitable furnace, not shown, and are then placed on the roll 22 and rolled to the desired diameter by the downward adjustment of the roll 21 which at the same time removes or irons out any irregularities in the outer surface of the ring and causes it to assume very closely the shape specified or desired for the finished product.

After hot rolling, the rings are permitted to cool and are then rerolled cold in a mill 30 (see Fig. 7) which includes rolls 31 and 32 corresponding with the rolls 21 and 22 respectively. These rolls 31 and 32 are carried by spindles 33 and 3 1 driven in any suitable manner and the rolls 31 and 32 are of excellent finish and of more accurate shape than are the rolls 21 and 22 used for the hot rolling. When the cold rolling operation is to be performed the rolls 21 and 22 may be removed from the spindles 23 and 24 and the rolls 31 and 32 may be substituted.

Ringsmay be formed by this method for various purposes and also to various shapes as desired, and it will be noted that the ring is brought to the general shape of the finished article without waste of material and without turning or similar machining operations. For example this method may be used for forming soft copper sealing rings for projectiles of large caliber, flanged car wheel rims, and similar articles.

t will be noted that according to the method of the present invention there is no waste of material since the ring section cut from a length of tubing contains the same amount of material as is required in a finished ring. A portion of the tube section is then displaced to preserve its original thickness while the remaining portion of the tube section is elongated to give it the desired length and reduce it to the desired wall thickness after which the ring or tube section is in effect turned inside out and then rolled to shape to finish it.

The method may be used for producing articles of different shapes or for a different purpose although the invention is particularly applicable to the manufacture of ring-like articles which have an irregular wall thickness. The invention may be practised to form a ring-shaped article of irregular wall thickness by shaping either the inside or the outside of a tube section, as might be most convenient, and then forcing the article through a die or over a punch to change the irregularity of surface shape from inside to outside or from outside to inside.

Having thus set forth the nature of my invention, what I claim is:

1. The method of forming a ring-shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method comprising providing a metal ring, forcing one end portion of said metal ring against a die to force said end portion inwardly without materially changing its wall thickness, forcing said ring through the die to elongate the ring inwardly of said end portion whereby said end portion retains substantially its original thickness, and then forcing a punch through the ring while the latter abuts a stripper ring to force outwardly the inturned end portion of the ring.

2. The method of forming a ring-shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method plying pressure to the remaining portion of the ring to elongate it and reduce its wall thickness, and then treating said ring to force its displaced end portion to the other side of the ring.

3. The method of forming a ring-shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method 1 comprising providing a metal ring, forcing one end portion of said metal ring against a die to force said end portion inwardly without materially changing its wall thickness, forcing said ring through the die to elongate the ring inwardly of said end portion whereby said end portion retains substantially its original thickness, forcing a punch through the ring while the latter abuts a stripper ring to force outwardly the inturned end portion of the ring, and then rolling said ring in a rolling mill to finish it.

4. The method of forming a ring-shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method comprising providing a metal ring having a wall rectangular in cross section, offsetting inwardly one end portion of said ring, applying pressure to the remaining portion of the ring to elongate and reduce the wall thickness of said remaining portion, and then forcing said inwardly offset portion outwardly to give said ring a straight inner wall surface and an irregular outer wall surface.

5. The method of forming a ring-shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method comprising providing a metal ring, forcing one end portion of said metal ring against a die to force said end portion inwardly, forcing said ring through the die to elongate the ring inwardly of said end portion whereby said end portion retains substantially its original thickness,

forcing a punch through the ring while the latter abuts a stripper ring to force outwardly the inturned end portion of the ring, heating said ring, rolling said ring to the desired shape while hot, permitting the ring to cool, and then rolling it between finishing rolls.

6. The method of forming a ring-shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method comprising providing a metal ring having a wall rectangular in cross section, offsetting inwardly one end portion of said ring, applying pressure to the remaining portion of the ring to elongate and reduce the wall thickness of said remaining portion, forcing said inwardly offset portion outwardly to give said ring a straight inner wall surface and an irregular outer wall surface, heating said ring, and then rolling the hot ring to the desired shape.

7. The method of forming a ring shaped article having irregular wall thickness, said method comprising providing a metal ring, placing said ring on a punch fitting the ring for a portion of its length and spaced from the ring at one end portion, forcing the ring and punch through a die of less diameter than the ring to force said end portion inwardly and draw the ring, and then forcing the punch through the ring while the latter abuts a stripper to force outwardly the said inwardly forced end portion of the ring.

CHARLES F. COOPER. 

